There aren’t that many puzzle games that can make your palms sweaty. It’s a skill that’s hard to master, but Box It Up! Inc (download from the App Store or Play Store) pretty much nails it. It’s a conveyor-belt based head-scratcher that has the potential to go south pretty darn quick. And that makes it all the more exciting.

The game sees you pushing boxes along a track. There are three gates at the end of the track – red, yellow and blue. You need to make sure the right colored box gets through the right colored gate. 

You’ll get a point if a box rolls through the correct gate of its own accord, but you’ll get two if you tap on it to fire it through. You’ll get even more if you fling stacks of boxes ahead, and you’ll also clear more space.

It’s a pretty basic system, but it works brilliantly well. You’re only ever a handful of seconds from disaster, and the game plays on that fear. There are empty boxes, boxes with cats in them, boxes that need to be filled. These new layers throw spanners in the works with a charming grin. 

Just when you think everything is going well, something new will happen and you’ll devolve into a frantic tapping and swiping mess to try and get everything where it’s supposed to do. It’s heartbreaking to watch a box slide into the wrong position at the wrong time, but one mistake doesn’t mean the end of the game.

That’s a nice touch – you’ve always got a chance to turn things around. If anything it adds to the tension, as the mistakes mount up and you edge closer to catastrophe. It also makes your skin-of-the-teeth victories even more thrilling.

Box It Up! Inc is filled with charm and cruelty. Its adorable graphics hide a sadistic streak a mile wide, and that’s going to make you love it even more. This is a brilliant, addictive puzzler packed with neat twists and bright ideas, and you’re going to hate it in just the right way.

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